The development of plasmid vectors useful for recombinant DNA genetics among microorganisms is well known. The editorial in Science, Vol. 196, April, 1977, gives a good summary of DNA research. This editorial is accompanied by a number of supporting papers in the same issue of Science.
Similar DNA work is currently being done on industrially important microorganisms of the genus Streptomyces. See Bibb, M., Schottel, J. L., and Cohen, S. N. 1980. A DNA cloning system for interspecies gene transfer in antibiotic-producing Streptomyces. Nature 284, 526-531; Schottel, J. L., Bibb, M., and Cohen, S. N. 1981. Cloning and expression in Streptomyces lividans of antibiotic resistance genes derived from Escherichia coli. J. Bacteriol., 146, 360-368; Suarez, J. E., and Chater, K. F. 1980. DNA cloning in Streptomyces: a bifunctional replicon comprising pBR322 inserted into a Streptomyces phage. Nature, 286, 527-529; and, Thompson, C. J., Ward, J. M., and Hopwood, D. A. 1980. DNA cloning in Streptomyces: resistance genes from antibiotic-producing species. Nature, 286, 525-527.
Plasmid puC6 can be isolated from Streptomyces espinosus biotype 23724a, NRRL 11439. U.S. Pat. No. 4,273,875 discloses and claims pUC6.